Helicopters of the Indian Air Force (IAF) successfully evacuated 19 persons stranded on an island in the swelling Siang river in Arunachal Pradesh early on Friday.

An alert had been issued by the state’s East Siang district administration on Wednesday following massive discharge in China’s Tsangpo river due to heavy rainfall. The Tsangpo is called Siang once it enters Arunachal Pradesh and becomes Brahmaputra after combining with two other rivers downstream.

“The rescue mission started at 4:30 am and was over in an hour. A total of 19 persons stranded in the island were air lifted by the IAF helicopters. Four youths and an elderly man chose to stay behind,” said Tamiyo Tatak, deputy commissioner of East Siang.

The stranded persons, engaged in dairy farming, had got trapped on the small island located in Sille-Oyan circle and due to rising water level and turbulence in the Siang, it was not possible to send rescue boats, he added. On Thursday, Tatak had sent a request to the IAF base in Mohanbari in Assam to airlift the stranded persons as it was not possible to land civilian helicopters on the small island.